- Jan 1 American Robert Fowler runs then world record marathon (2:52:45.4) at Yonkers, NY
- Jan 1 Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher
- Jan 1 In Great Britain, the Old Age Pension Law is finally instituted, providing pensions for every British subject over 70 with low income
Nimrod Reaches Farthest South
Jan 9 Ernest Shackleton as part of the British Nimrod Expedition reaches a record farthest southern latitude (88°23' south)
- Jan 16 Anrtarctic explorers Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David and Alistair Mackay reach south magnetic pole as part of the Nimrod Expedition
- Jan 19 Eugene Walter's "Easiest Way" premieres in NYC
- Jan 22 Vassily Kandinsky forms Kunstlerverein in Munich
- Jan 23 1st radio rescue at sea during CQD distress code by the British Royal Mail steamship Republic off Nantucket Island
Elektra
Jan 25 Richard Strauss' one-act opera "Elektra" premieres in Dresden
- Jan 27 The Young Left is founded in Norway
- Jan 28 US military forces leave Cuba for 2nd time
- Feb 1 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah, opens
- Feb 1 US forces withdraw from Cuba after liberal Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president; ensuing political instability will bring a threat of US intervention in 1912
- Feb 2 Italian writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti publishes "Manifest o of Futurism" in Paris, France
- Feb 8 France & Germany sign treaty about Morocco
- Feb 9 1st US federal legislation on narcotics prohibits importation, possession, and use of "smoking opium"
- Feb 12 American James Clark runs world record marathon (2:46:52.6) in NYC
NAACP Forms
Feb 12 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) forms
- Feb 12 Netherlands' SDAP suspends Marxist Tribune group (Gorter & Wijnkoop)
Polonia
Feb 12 Symphony in B minor "Polonia", by Polish composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski has its public premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
- Feb 16 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (NYC)
- Feb 16 Serbia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary
Great White Fleet
Feb 22 Great White Fleet, 1st US fleet to circle the globe, returns to Virginia
February Manifesto
Feb 23 Russian Tsar Nicholas II dissolves Finnish Diet
- Feb 26 Austria and Turkey conclude an agreement in which Turkey recognizes Austria's 1908 annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is to receive compensation
- Feb 28 1st National Woman's Day is observed in the United States. Organized by the Socialist Party of America in honor of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.
- Mar 1 1st US university school of nursing established, University of Minnesota
- Mar 2 Great Britain, France, Germany & Italy asks Serbia to set no territorial demands
Elihu Root Senator
Mar 4 Elihu Root begins his tenure after being elected United States Senator for New York
- Mar 4 US prohibits interstate transportation of game birds
William Howard Taft
Mar 4 William Howard Taft inaugrated as 27th US President during 10" snowstorm
- Mar 6 Dutch film distributor Jean Desmet opens his first permanent cinema, the Cinema Parisien in Rotterdam
Griselda
Mar 6 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Griselda" premieres in Vienna
- Mar 12 Alarmed over increasing German naval strength, Parliament passes a new naval appropriations bill
- Mar 14 Amsterdam Social-Democratic Party (SDP) forms
- Mar 18 Einar Dessau of Denmark makes 1st ham broadcast
- Mar 18 Russia and Bulgaria reach an agreement in which late 19th century Russian financial claims are cancelled to meet compensation due to Turkey from Bulgaria
- Mar 21 Germany sends Russia a diplomatic notes requesting recognition of the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and cessation of support to Serbia in the controversy
- Mar 21 Moran & MacFarland (US) wins Europe's 1st 6 day bicycle race (Berlin)
- Mar 26 August Strindberg's "Bjalb-jarle-ti" premieres in Stockholm
- Mar 26 In support of Mohammed Ali Shah's coup d'etat against the constitutional government in Persia, a Russian military force invades northern Persia to relieve the siege of Tabriz
- Mar 30 New York's Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens
Mahler Conducts NY Philharmonic
Mar 31 Gustav Mahler conducts New York Philharmonic for his 1st time
- Mar 31 In a diplomatic note to Austria, Serbia recognizes the Bosnian annexation and promises to maintain friendly relations with Austria
- Mar 31 National Baseball Commission rules players who jump contracts to be suspended for 5 years; players joining outlaw organizations suspended for 3 years
- Apr 6 1st credit union forms in US
Peary's Arctic Expedition
Apr 6 North Pole almost reached by American explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson. Navigational errors discovered decades later in the travel log likely place the expedition a few miles short.
- Apr 9 The US Congress pass the Payne-Aldrich bill, raising certain tariffs on goods entering the United States
- Apr 11 Establishment of Tel Aviv by Jewish settlers (named 1910)
- Apr 12 Philadelphia's Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium), baseball's first steel and concrete stadium, opens; Athletics win 8-1 against Boston Red Sox
- Apr 13 In Constantinople the primarily Albanian First Army Corps seizes the parliament building and telegraphs offices, forcing the Ottoman statesman Hilmi Pasha to resign
- Apr 14 Anglo-Persian Oil Company forms in London
Beatification of Joan of Arc
Apr 18 Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican
Baseball Record
May 2 Honus Wagner steals his way around bases in 1st inning against Cubs
- May 6 Indian nationalist Sri Aurobindo acquitted in the Alipore Bomb Case in Calcutta, India
- May 7 Construction begins on first 100 houses in Ahuzat Bayit (Tel Aviv)
- May 8 American Albert Raines runs world record marathon (2:46:04.6) in NYC
- May 8 British runner Henry Barrett runs world record marathon (2:42:31) in the Polytechnic Marathon in London
- May 10 Winchester's Fred Toney no-hits Lexington for 17 inning
- May 13 Christian National Labor Workers (CNV) party begins in Netherlands
- May 13 First Giro d'Italia takes place in Milan - Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna is the winner
- May 17 White firemen on Georgia lroad strike to protest against hiring blacks
Johnson vs O'Brien
May 19 In his first title defense Jack Johnson fights 'Philadelphia' Jack O'Brien to a no decision in 6 rounds in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to retain his world heavyweight crown
- May 22 1st San Francisco fireboat, David Scannell, launched
- May 24 Bristol University granted Royal Charter
- May 29 Frank "Home Run" Baker's 1st career home run for Philadelphia Athletics
- May 30 Reuben Siegel laid cornerstone of 1st home in Tel-Aviv
- May 31 National Conference on the Negro holds its first meeting in United Charities Building, New York (earlier form of the NAACP)
- Jun 1 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle
Alfred Deakin Prime Minister
Jun 2 Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time
- Jun 7 Cleveland Industrial Exposition opens
Mary Pickford Screen Debut
Jun 7 Mary Pickford makes her screen debut at the age of 16
- Jun 9 Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22-year-old housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the 1st woman to drive across the US, in a Maxwell 30, drives 3,800 miles from Manhattan to San Francisco in 59 days
- Jun 12 "Shine On, Harvest Moon" by Ada Jones & Billy Murray hits #1
- Jun 15 Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
- Jun 16 1st US airplane sold commercially, by Glenn Curtiss for $5,000
Jim Thorpe Forfeits Olympic Gold
Jun 16 Jim Thorpe makes his pro baseball pitching debut for Rocky Mount (ECL) with 4-2 win, this will cause him to forfeit his Olympic gold medals
- Jun 18 American educator Nannie Helen Burroughs forms National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington D.C
- Jun 19 1st baseball game, an exhibition between local Elks lodge teams, played under lights in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Jun 20 1st balloon honeymoon (Roger Burham & Eleanor Waring)
- Jun 23 Confessional parties win Dutch parliamentary elections
- Jun 26 Victoria & Albert Museum opens in London
- Jun 28 1st French air show, Concours d'Avation opens
- Jun 30 Jack Johnson fights Tony Ross to a no decision in 6 rounds at Duquesne Gardens, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to retain his heavyweight boxing title
- Jul 4 British Secret Service Bureau forms foreign section, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6
- Jul 12 16th Amendment was passed by congress (power to tax incomes)
- Jul 14 German Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow resigns and is replaced by Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
- Jul 16 MLB Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators play longest scoreless game in AL history - 18 innings at Bennett Field in Detroit, Michigan [1]
- Jul 19 Cleveland shortstop Neal Ball completes the first modern MLB unassisted triple play in the Indians' 6-1 win over the Boston Red Sox
- Jul 24 Brooklyn Superbas pitcher Nap Rucker strikes out 16 Pittsburgh Pirates in a 1-0 victory at Washington Park, Brooklyn
- Jul 25 France's Louis Bleriot, makes 1st airplane flight across English Channel
- Jul 27 British ship SS Waratah is last seen en-route from Durban to Cape Town; 211 on board are missing and no trace of the ship ever found
First Military Airplane
Jul 27 Orville Wright successfully tests the Wright Military Flyer, the world's first military airplane, making a record flight of 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 40 seconds, flying approximately 64 km (40 mi) [1]
Umpire Starts a Riot
Aug 3 MLB umpire Tim Hurst instigates a riot by spitting in the face of A's 2nd baseman Eddie Collins who had questioned a call; 2 weeks later Hurst banned for life
- Aug 6 Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip
- Aug 11 SOS 1st used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC
- Aug 11 Warren Bardsley (136 & 130) 1st to get twin tons in a Test
- Aug 18 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President William Howard Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.
- Aug 19 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of automobile race Indianapolis 500, opens in Speedway, Indiana
- Aug 24 Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal
- Aug 26 Australian cricket all-rounder Frank Tarrant scores 145 and takes 13-67 in a county game for Middlesex as they beat Gloucester by an innings and 31 runs in a single day
Chesbro's Final Highlander Game
Aug 27 Future Baseball HOF pitcher Jack Chesbro's final game for NY Highlanders; 17-6 loss to the Tigers at Bennett Park, Detroit
- Aug 29 AH Latham of France sets world airplane altitude record of 155 m
- Aug 29 World's 1st air race held in Rheims France. Glenn Curtiss (USA) wins
- Aug 30 Burgess Shale fossil site - one of most diverse and best-preserved in the world, discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in Candaian Rocky Mountains (now British Columbia's Yoho National Park)
- Aug 31 A. J. Reach Co. patents cork-centered baseball
- Aug 31 Swedish runner Thure Johansson runs world record marathon (2:40:34.2) in Stockholm
South Africa Act
Sep 2 King Edward VII signs South Africa Act
- Sep 6 New York Times headline announces American explorer Robert Peary had discovered the North Pole 5 months earlier (now thought unlikely)
- Sep 7 Eugene Lefebvre becomes first pilot to die in an airplane craft, while test piloting new French-built Wright biplane at Juvisy
- Sep 9 China's Metropolitan Library established by the Qing Dynasty in Beijing Guanghua temple (now the National Library of China) [1]
- Sep 9 Jack Johnson retains his heavyweight boxing title when he fights Al Kaufman to a no decision in 10 rounds at Coffroth's Arena, San Francisco, California
- Sep 11 German astronomer Max Wolf rediscovers Halley's comet
- Sep 12 World's first patent for synthetic rubber granted to German chemist Fritz Hofmann
- Sep 13 Ty Cobb clinches AL HR title with his 9th HR (all inside-the-park)
- Sep 17 Denis Peyrony and Louis Capitan discover the skull of an adult male Neanderthal (La Ferrassie 1) during excavations in a rock shelter near La Ferrassie, France
- Sep 18 Largest paid baseball attendance (35,409), A's beat Tigers, 2-0 in Det
- Sep 20 The British Parliament passes the South Africa Act; it calls for union of Cape Colony, Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal; and both English and Dutch as official languages
- Sep 25 Hudson-Fulton Celebration opens in NY
- Sep 27 US President William Howard Taft sets aside some 3 million acres of oil-rich public land (including Teapot Dome, Wyoming) for conservation purposes
- Oct 2 First Rugby Union match is played at the English RFU owned Twickenham ground; Harlequins beat Richmond, 14-10
- Oct 16 In his 4th title defense Jack Johnson KOs Stanley Ketchel in the 12th round at Mission St Arena, Colma, California to retain his heavyweight boxing crown
- Oct 18 Comte de Lambert of France sets airplane altitude record of 300 m
- Oct 24 Italy and Russia sign the Racconigi Pact in which both nations promise to support the status quo in the Balkans
Assassination of Itō Hirobumi
Oct 26 Itō Hirobumi, Resident-General of Korea, and former Japanese Prime Minister is shot and killed by Korean nationalist An Jung-geun in Harbin, China
Susanna's Secret
Nov 4 Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera "Il Segreto di Susanna" (Susanna's Secret) is first produced in Munich
Mackenzie King
Nov 12 Politician William Lyon Mackenzie King takes his seat in the House of Commons as Canda's first Minister of Labour
- Nov 13 259 miners die in a fire at St Paul Mine at Cherry, Illinois
- Nov 13 Ben Simpson of Hamilton Tigers kicks 9 singles in 14-4 win over the Argos at Rosedale Field in Toronto
- Nov 13 Collier's magazine accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields
- Nov 16 Dutch football club FC Eindhoven is founded in southern part of the city; Eredivisie 1954; KNVB Cup 1937
- Nov 18 US invades Nicaragua, later overthrows President Zelaya
Kuyper Denies Corruption
Nov 19 Former Dutch premier Abraham Kuyper denies corruption
- Nov 20 Jack Williams of Canadian football team Ottawa Rough Riders kicks 9 singles in a game
- Nov 23 7.17" (18.2 cm) of rainfall, Rattlesnake Creek, Idaho (state record)
- Nov 23 Wright Brothers form million dollar corporation to manufacture airplanes
- Nov 26 Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3
Nov 28 Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, one of the genres most difficult, premieres at the New Theatre in New York City, with the composer as soloist and the New York Symphony Society conducted by Walter Damrosch
People's Budget
Nov 30 British House of Lords rejects David Lloyd George's 'People's Budget', which tried to shift tax burden to the wealthy. Leads to the Parliament Act; intent to stop unelected house overruling will of the elected house.
- Dec 1 1st Christmas Club payment made, to Carlisle Trust Co, Pennsylvania
- Dec 1 1st Israeli kibbutz founded, Deganya Alef
- Dec 2 National Hockey Association (NHA) is formed in Montreal; original members include Montreal Wanderers and Montreal Canadiens; becomes NHL after some NHA teams leave due to ownership disagreements, and create their own league
- Dec 4 Oldest still-operating NHL franchise is officially established as J. Ambrose O’Brien and Jack Laviolette create the “Club de Hockey Canadien,” known today as the Montreal Canadiens
Bakelite: the Birth of Plastic
Dec 7 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry
First Woman Awarded Literature Nobel
Dec 10 Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Dec 11 Canadian Football exhibition game played in Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000
- Dec 11 Colored moving pictures demonstrated at Madison Square Garden, NYC
- Dec 15 Thomas J. Lynch becomes president of baseball's National League
- Dec 16 A conservative revolution and US pressure forces Nicaraguan President Jose Santos from office
- Dec 21 1st junior high school established (Berkeley California)
"The City"
Dec 21 Clyde Fitch's play "The City" premieres in NYC
- Dec 21 Unitversity of Copenhagen rejects American Explorer Frederick A Cook's claim that he was 1st to North Pole
- Dec 23 Albert I becomes the third King of the Belgians
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies